League of Legends has evolved over the years, and the comparison between Riot Games’ most current work and that which took place in the early days of the title is increasingly evident. This is something that can be seen in almost every aspect, but stands out even more when focusing on champion design.. Some characters are so important to the game’s development that the developer wouldn’t even dare release them today, and one of the most obvious examples is shapeshifters.
Riot Games’ Most Hated Champions
Shapeshifters are any characters that can transform over the course of the game. This is a broader category than you might think, which includes characters such as Viego, Kled, and Gnar. However, when the League of Legends community or the developers themselves talk about this type of champion, they usually refer to three specific cases. We’re talking about Elise, Jayce and Nidalee. All can change shape at will from the first level of the game and have six basic spells. A way of working that Riot Games has not repeated for more than ten years.
Due to this situation, a League of Legends fan decided to ask the developers why these types of champions were no longer being made. Riot Truexy from the Summoner’s Rift design team quickly responded to this player explaining thatthese were very difficult champions to create and capable of causing big problems in the long run. A considerable effort considering that, additionally, for many players, the lack of an ultimate ability that is often the most satisfying part of every character’s spell kit is a problem.
“In terms of power, their ultimate is spread across three other abilities and so each of them will be less satisfying unless they combine really well with each other. As a result, many of these champions are difficult to play (…) Highly experienced players use six-skill combos better than the majority of the community. You need to balance it with this in mind… This is why Nidalee’s win rate is lower than other champions (at medium skill level). We’re not against it, but there are a lot of challenges to create such a character.”explained Mr. Truexy.
While Riot Games isn’t in denial, it seems impossible for this type of character to return to League of Legends. Over the past ten years already, the developer has created new characters that are relatively similar to shapeshifters that do not suffer from these problems.. This is the case of Gnar or Rek’Sai, which have a very strong ultimate ability and strong moments that do not depend on the execution of combos. Likewise K’Sante, although not officially recognized as a shapeshifter, is something similar to what this category of champions may offer in the future.
They’re not the only character type that may not return to League of Legends. Other developers have “criticized” some of the game’s older mechanics. This is the case of using energy as a resource to cast abilities. Similar to what happens with shapeshifters, a champion that uses this item hasn’t been added to the game in over ten years and that doesn’t seem like something that will change in the future.
lfl-lol
Hantera hasn’t left Karmine Corp yet, but the signals seem to be unanimous. A replacement would have been found and the Frenchman would have even already reached an agreement with a new team! The good news is that he would stay in our French League of Legends league.